Shooting the Moon: Chris Moon Far Ahead at HPT Final Table
After a flurry of eliminations put a furious finish to Day 2, the final table of Heartland Poker Tour Ameristar East Chicago $1,650 Main Event is set with Chris Moon pacing way in front of the competition after bagging more than one-third of the chips in play.
With over $300,000 in cashes, Moon certainly isn't lacking experience, but he still seeks his first trophy in live poker. Several years back, in 2015, he had his closest call, which came in another HPT event in his home state of Michigan. Moon would finish in second place for his biggest cash, $101,823.
He's certainly put himself in fantastic position to break through with a win. Moon will enter the final table toting just shy of 6.2 million, more than double that of second-place Craig Casino.
Aside from Casino's 2,750,000, Artem Zverkhovskyy is the only other player north of 2 million at 2,160,000.
HPT Ameristar East Chicago Final Table
| Seat | Player | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Salazar | 760,000 |
| 2 | Craig Casino | 2,750,000 |
| 3 | Bret Martin | 545,000 |
| 4 | Dennis Ng | 1,000,000 |
| 5 | Paul Elfelt | 1,265,000 |
| 6 | Artem Zverkhovskyy | 2,160,000 |
| 7 | Mike O'Neill | 970,000 |
| 8 | Chris Moon | 6,195,000 |
| 9 | Bryant Miller | 1,470,000 |
When it comes to HPT events, perhaps nobody has as much final-table experience as Casino. He has two wins and 10 other final table appearances, most recently last July in Colorado.
Casino was able to win a massive pot when he flopped the nut straight with nine-seven and watched in amazement as two players moved in ahead of him, a short-stacked player with top pair and another player who flopped top pair. Casino held up for essentially a double knockout, moving well over 100 big blinds to get to the final table bubble.
As for Moon, he found himself all in with three outs fairly early in the day but hit a seven with ace-seven against ace-king. He didn't look back from there as he busted player after player, most notably fellow big stack Mark Morris in a dream spot holding top pair when Morris couldn't find a fold with a weaker pocket pair on the turn and had just two outs.
The last nine players compete on the streamed and televised final table starting Tuesday at noon, with the stream coming in on a slight delay. There's $183,899 plus an HPT Championship Package worth $3,500 on the line, with everyone having $16,346 locked up.
Come back to PokerNews for updates or catch the stream on HPT's Twitch channel.
flop. However, Salazar turned a pair on the 
turn and Schaafsma began moving to exit. The 
river confirmed her demise.
. One player had 
but Chris Moon paired up with 
, hitting a nine to score the knockout.
. The 
board was of no use to Davidson and hit the rail just before Taylor Firebaugh busted at the other table.
, Kalpesh Shah shoved in the small blind for about 200,000. From under the gun, Taylor Firebaugh announced he was all in for what looked like 1,140,000. Craig Casino was in middle position and called it off.
and 
kept his straight best. He was barely covered by Firebaugh, who had 40,000 left and busted the next hand.
suited but couldn't overcome the 
and crushed by 
against the 
of Bryant Miller. The 
flop was a great one for Wazwaz, but he had a bit of a sweat after the 
river was a brick.
in the big blind. Magnus showed 
, busting the former chip leader.